Barry: Poor communication led to tax delinquency

D.C. Council member Marion Barry says poor communication between “my representatives and the different IRS divisions” is to blame for a tax lien the federal government recently filed against one of his properties, adding to his well-documented tax woes.

Mr. Barry, Ward 8 Democrat and former four-term mayor for the District, said he has cooperated with the IRS since pleading guilty about five years ago to failing to pay several years of taxes, yet “the various IRS divisions do not seem to know what the other divisions have agreed to and accepted regarding the resolution of this matter.”

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The Washington Times first reported on Wednesday the IRS had filed a tax lien for more than $3,200 in unpaid federal income taxes for 2010.

The filing arrived less than two years after federal tax collectors filed a separate lien notice against Mr. Barry, citing more than $15,000 in unpaid taxes from 2005 to 2008, which is unrelated to a misdemeanor tax case that involved unpaid taxes on more than $500,000 in income from 1999 to 2004.

“Thousands of Americans have serious federal tax challenges; I, too, have them and everybody knows that. … It does no good for the media to sensationalize this situation and beat me up as I have been using the processes established by the IRS to resolve this matter,” he said.